Russell McMahon wrote: > http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,71724-0.html?tw=wn_index_1 > > Says: > > > 02:00 AM Sep, 07, 2006 > > A half-mile below the surface of the New Mexico desert, the federal > government is interring thousands of tons of monstrously dangerous > leftovers from its nuclear weapons program --plutonium-infested > clothing, tools and chemical sludge that will remain potentially > lethal for thousands of years to come. > > It may be safely secured now, but how to keep our descendants > centuries in the future from accidentally unearthing it? > > That's the question posed by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the > nation's only underground repository for military-generated > radioactive waste. > To address it, the Department of Energy convened a conclave of > scientists, linguists, anthropologists and sci-fi thinkers to develop > an elaborate system intended to shout "Danger!" to any human being for > the next 10,000 years -- regardless of what language they speak or > technology they use. > > The resulting solution: an unprecedented and epic scale monument > that's expected to take the next three decades and as much as $1 > billion to complete. "Basically, we just want to make sure society > doesn't forget we're here," says Roger Nelson, WIPP's chief scientist. > It's going to be pretty obvious that something is there under the > scrublands near Carlsbad. The waste site will be surrounded by a > four-mile outer fence of dozens of 25-foot, 20-ton granite markers > engraved with multi-lingual and pictographic warnings. > > Inside that perimeter will be ... > __________________ > > Photos > > http://blog.wired.com/nucleardump/ > > Their "Dnger of digging" lightning bolt earthworks TOTALLY filed the > darwin test with my wife. She thought it looked like they were trying > to show that the site contained something interesting. > > I think a large skull and mushroom cloud may fill the bill :-) > But Russell, do us crackpot accounting types get to add the _costs_ of all this to the costs of our nuclear power plant? ...I notice that they gave up on Yucca mountain, NV.... --Bob > > Russell > > > > > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist